1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive collision mitigation apparatus, to be mounted to an automotive vehicle, for mitigating damage generated when a vehicle collides with an obstacle or a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed an automotive collision mitigation apparatus mounted to an automobile vehicle capable of mitigating damage caused by colliding with an obstacle or another vehicle. For example, Japanese patent laid open publication No. JP 2004-284422 has disclosed a related-art collision mitigation apparatus mounted to an automobile vehicle. The related-art collision mitigation apparatus is capable of detecting obstacles which are present on a driving road, and operating a warning brake and providing a warning signal in order to warn the driver of the automobile vehicle when there is a high possibility of collision with the detected obstacle. The related-art automotive collision mitigation apparatus disclosed in JP 2004-284422 drives a collision mitigation brake in order to mitigate the damage of the collision when own vehicle more approaches the detected obstacle.
In such a related-art automotive collision mitigation apparatus, there is a possibility that the collision mitigation brake operates without driving the operation of the warning brake when another vehicle suddenly rushes out to the side of own vehicle or an operation error occurs in the automotive collision mitigation apparatus. In general, because the collision mitigation brake has a large braking force rather than that of the warning brake, there is a possibility that even if own vehicle escapes the collision with the detected obstacle own vehicle is struck from behind by an approaching vehicle (or a rear vehicle which is running behind own vehicle on a same traffic lane) when the collision mitigation brake operates without operating the warning brake.